MC Shoehorn: Home

NEWS FROM MC SHOEHORN- June 2016. Shoehorn had a great success in Chicago on June 4th with Reggio McLaughlin's National Tap Dance Day concert, and reconnected with one of his earliest jamming buddies, Scott Hamill, who was with him the first time he ever made a sound on a sax many years ago. He also caught up with family living in the Windy City. There was also a Tap Festival in Portland the previous weekend, and Shoehorn's Tappercussion™ e-tap™ instrument was a hit, with a number of the guest artists trying it out backstage. Here is the new youtube playlist for "Dances with Instruments" https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7O5sHH3ie4NcPSoMjERITnlsjZgHzgyh April marked the digital re-release of WORLD BEAT RAGTIME, The very 1st Shoehorn CD from 1994, available on Shoehorn's cdbaby page for downloads. The album represents Shoehorn's attempt at pop crossover and is quite different from his current work, yet represents some of the same artistic concerns, such as conveying the idea of tap dance as a percussion instrument thoroughly integrated into the music, electric tap dance (the Tappercussion™ e-tap™ instrument of his own design) robust sax playing, and world music sensibilities. These songs have not been performed very much in recent years, and some have never been performed at all, besides the studio sessions. The lyrical content is both serious and humorous, dealing with topics such as gender politics and love, climate change ( way ahead of the curve in 1994) mutation, coffee pretension, and the influence of the blues on the global music scene. The grooves run from unplugged to full-on funk, swing, Latin, rock, and free-form. Please attend the event- MC Shoehorn's Hatband CD Re-Release Retrospective party - 6:30-7:30pm April 5th, 2016, at Jimmy Mak's 221 NW 10th Avenue Portland, OR Joined by pianist Dan Gaynor (Chuck Israels band) and drummer Martin Zarzar (Pink Martini) and young tap sensation Elizabeth Abel, Shoehorn will play a couple of songs from each of his CDs, and a couple of new numbers he hopes to record this year. There are still copies available of more recent titles available on CD, plus the DVD "Dances with Instruments" The "Wingin It" CD and "Dances with Instruments" DVD were recorded and released in 2015. More music to come!

Here is a clip, with the band, titled "Ice Cream and Bubbles" which is part of both of these projects:

MC Shoehorn, performance artist, makes music with his feet and dances with his horn, combining body rhythms and sophisticated forms and concepts into entertainment. Specialist in saxophone and tap dance, he's a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer, utilizing wind and percussion instruments, playing classic and original songs, with an ear for music from around the world.

A World Jazz Extravaganza with MC Shoehorn! The tap dancer and saxophonist presents his new CD "Wingin' It" and his new DVD "Dances with Instruments". The CD has a strong Afro-Cuban flavor, with a Japanese twist. The music is grooving hard with bassist Damian Erskine, drummer Martin Zarzar, percussionists Miguel Bernal and Scott Wardinsky, and pianist Gordon Lee . "Wingin" It" features guest vocalist Eileen Conley on two tracks and Kite Giedraitis, leader of African-style marimba band Fools in Paradise, plays mbira and bass kalimba on one selection. (Two tracks from the CD recording session are also part of the DVD as well.)